Sigh...

So that was pretty much the worst possible result. With New York and Kansas City both earning wins tonight in two fairly wild matches, DC United now is currently OUT of the playoffs.

KC needed a corner kick goal in the last minute of stoppage time (in front of less than 10K people) to beat what appeared to be a pretty weak San Jose team. I watched most of this match on mlslive.tv, and really, the Quakes' offense is so unorganized. Several times in the second half a player with the ball could have laid the ball off to a teammate, but decided to shoot himself instead at a poor angle. Without Joe Cannon, this team wouldn't have a chance. Which of course makes me wonder about what could have been had we managed to trade for Cannon instead of Wells this offseason, as we had originally tried to do.

NY's win was mostly off the foot of Juan Pablo Angel, but it was the goal by reserve keeper Danny Cepero that put this game away. What?! The announcers were calling it the first goal in MLS history by a keeper. I can't decide if this result gives me hope that United will also be able to punish the Crew's backup keeper if they start him again, or if it worries me because now the Crew will probably be playing pissed off.

With these two results, DC is back to being 2 points out of the playoffs, making a win absolutely necessary. To be fair though, it's interesting that the 3 teams still in contention in the East all have to play the only 3 teams in the East that have already clinched playoff spots. The Wiz play at the Revs, the Bulls play at the Fire, and United plays at the Crew. It makes me nervous that the two teams we have to count on are our two arch nemeses who always seem to knock us out of the playoffs. This year, they could knock us out just by rolling over and losing (or tying).

So the playoffs essentially start one week early this year. It's like a play-in game for each team. But with these three matchups next weekend, one thing is for sure. The teams that DESERVE to be in the playoffs WILL BE in the playoffs. Right?